Anyone heard a K2 HD CD yet?

Hi Rja, the K2 HD is a Victor Entertainment-developed mastering process that produces master discs for use by pressing plants around the world. XRCD is an in-house disc mastering and manufacturing process, the mastering technique of which is not related to that of the K2 HD.

The following excerpt is written by Mr. Winston Ma of First Impression Music, taken directly from the review on the FIM K2 HD disc, "This is K2 HD Sound!":

http://www.dagogo.com/Music/FIM-K2HD-Sampler.html

"K2 HD is an entirely new mastering system developed by the K2 team for Victor Entertainment, a separate JVC company from JVC Mastering Center in Yokohama, which produces the XRCD. Though both are a part of the larger JVC Company of Japan, Victor Entertainment and JVC Mastering Center operate independently of each other.

In a nutshell, XRCD/XRCD24 is a product which is mastered by a special processor system and the glass master is cut by special XRCD laser cutter in the XRCD production line. On the other hand, K2 HD Mastering is primarily a superb and very special mastering technology. What it produces is first and foremost a K2 HD master disc (WAV file). It is not a product.

The K2 HD master disc can be used to produce K2 HD mastered CD’s by any pressing plant anywhere, provided the quality is assured.

In summary, K2 HD is not XRCD/XRCD24. It is K2 HD mastered discs."

Hope this helps.

Constantine

Thanks Constantine,
I see 2 Japanese K2 HD CDs of interest, an Emerson, Lake and Palmer greatest hits CD and a John Coltrane CD. I'll check one or both out.

Hi Rja, just got a Press Release from FIM:

"the second K2 HD album will be Flamenco LIM K2 HD 022 which will be available in the third week of October, 2007."

Since FIM is the first label to release K2 HD discs in the U.S., I'd recommend interested Audiogoners to go to the FIM site and sign up for future Newsletters.

I purchased the FIM K2HD sampler and also a Japanese K2HD import of Paul Butterfield's Better Days, a wonderful record I have enjoyed on vinyl since its release. I'm not yet ready to render a verdict on these discs, but wish I had not bought the FIM sampler. There are a couple of excerpts from the Reference Recordings catalog, but most of the rest of the sampler is pretty dreadful musically. Typical of FIM as far as I am concerned, but it really just reflects their musical tastes, which are not mine.

Drubin, give it a few more spins. There are the Keith Johnson's recordings of the Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dance No. 1 and the War Dance from Respighi's Queen of Sheba Suite, both are popular audiophile demonstration tracks.

Then there is Ansermet and L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande's reading of the Tchaikovsky Swan Lake excerpt from a 1959 DECCA, a vintage treasure cherished by many, not to mention other quintessential classical tracks, such as the best-sounding Vivaldi Four Season I've heard, a Carmen excerpt and a Pachelbel Canon in D.

Although I am not a huge Jazz fan, I do find track 3, Lift Alone, a most captivating performance of a Chinese erhu in a Jazz backdrop, while the use of erh and guzheng in track 6, Lift Your Veil, displays a rather unusal but strangely expressive use of the Chinese instruments. But listen to track 9, Blue Dream, don't you just find the seemingly highly-improvised sax just amazingly contemplative and yet musically tasteful?

There are also two vocal cuts, as in Heart of Glass, a very melodic piece sung in perfect British English by an incomparably jazzy Korean Nah Youn Sun in Denmark, and Kinderpiele, an equally enchanting piece (if not more so) of a female vocalization accompanied by a single acoustic guitar. This piece, though sung in German, is nevertheless incredibly communicative.

My favorite track, for the time being, is the Tsuyoshi Yamamoto ensemble's Autumn In Seattle for the exceptional sound quality, although my favorite FIM disc is still the Vivaldi Four Seasons. Perhaps because I've never heard Jazz in such clarity and musicality that the Tsuyoshi Yamamoto cut has taken priority over a classical track in my listening.

FIM packs the disc so that fans of different genres can enjoy the disc; but I've found it more conducive to just play tracks of the same genre in listening sessions. While I'm sure some audiophiles enjoy listening to the disc in the order of FIM's arrangement, I found it rather disconcerting; but that's the nature of a sampler disc.